Decision Report 201809456

Summary

Ms C complained that the care she received from the board when she attended A&E at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and a surgical hot clinic (the hot clinic provides assessment and management of patients referred by A&E that need further investigations and assessment but that do not require to be admitted) the following day was unreasonable. We took independent advice from a consultant in emergency medicine. We found that while the majority of the care and treatment Ms C received in A&E was reasonable, the wait for triage and the wait for pain relief was unreasonable and there was no evidence of pain scores being recorded in Ms C's notes. With regard to Ms C's attendance at the hot clinic, there was an issue with her appointment, and the way the hot clinic operated did not appear to have been communicated to Ms C in advance to manage her expectations. As a result, we upheld this aspect of Ms C's complaint.

Ms C further complained that there was an undue delay in the board providing her with an endoscopy (a medical procedure where a tube-like instrument is put into the body to look inside). We found that Ms C had to wait 15 weeks for an endoscopy which was outwith the 6 week national standard waiting time and as a result, we upheld this aspect of the complaint.

Ms C also complained that the board's handling of her complaint was unreasonable. We found that the board's handling of Ms C's complaint was not in line with the NHS Complaints Handling Procedure and as a result, we upheld this aspect of the complaint.

Recommendations

What we asked the organisation to do in this case:

• Apologise to Ms C for the unreasonable care and treatment, the unreasonable delay in receiving her endoscopy and the unreasonable handling of her complaint. The apology should meet the standards set out in the SPSO guidelines on apology available at www.spso.org.uk/information-leaflets

What we said should change to put things right in future:

• Patients should be triaged timeously, in line with relevant guidelines. Pain scores should be recorded regularly and acted upon timeously in line with relevant guidelines.

In relation to complaints handling, we recommended:

• Complaints should be handled in line with the NHS Scotland Model Complaints Handling Procedure.

We have asked the organisation to provide us with evidence that they have implemented the recommendations we have made on this case by the deadline we set.